Ms Steacy said she has received an outpouring of public support after posting a picture of the note on Facebook.

The mother-of-two hopes her story will inspire more women to enroll in flight school, adding the man had the opportunity to disembark the plane if he felt so strongly about it.

‘It made me feel sad. It was just surprising,’ she told CTV Vancouver. ‘I can’t believe that there’s people that still think that way.

‘The female flight attendants and her male co-pilot all had the same reaction. All of us had our mouths open in shock. We didn’t know what to say.

The note was written by a a passenger called David (Picture: Facebook)

She added: ‘Almost every day people I find are a little bit surprised, and I think it’s just because women aren’t enrolling in flight schools.

‘Either it’s because they don’t think they can or they have been told that it’s not for women or that they can’t do it. And I just hope that that mindset can change, like it has in a lot of professions.’

A WestJet Airlines spokesman said: ‘We are enormously proud of the professionalism, skills and expertise of our pilots and we were disappointed to see this note.’